A fond farewell to the The Prince of Darkness

Born in 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota as “Prince Rodgers Nelson” yes his name was actually Prince – He followed in his fathers footsteps in pursuit of stardom.

After cutting his teeth playing in some of the local groups, he recorded a demo tape to attract attention from labels but instead had some interest from a management company who seeing his talent promptly signed him at the age of just 17. With the backing of the company he recorded another demo and subsequently they started to attract interest with him getting a deal with Warner Bros.

With a major record label behind him he moved to California and wrote what would be his debut album For You released in 1978, it was a masterpiece with Prince playing all of the instruments himself and it was a breakthrough success.

Four albums later and he was still releasing platinum selling albums accompanied with spectacular tours taking the show all over the US with his handpicked band of world class musicians.

Doing what most artists never achieve in their careers – having not only a more successful comeback but a complete image change giving us one of the most incredible pieces of music ever recorded, Purple Rain which in addition to his album selling over 10 million copies and spending nearly half a year at number one, it was also the soundtrack for his feature film that won him an Academy Award.

After an increased output of music for both his fans and in motion pictures he sought to look for alternative ways to release his music, and this was demonstrated after he famously changed his name to a symbol and to The Artist formally known as Prince due to a fallout with his record label by releasing a new album exclusively in the Mail on Sunday Newspaper.

Throughout his glittering career he became just as well known for his eccentric personality aswell as his music as he rarely gave interviews, and this persona only added to the aura of Prince.

In addition to selling over 100 million records worldwide it was revealed that he has a massive amount of unreleased material so hopefully there maybe new music in the future.

We are sad to see another one our Idols go but they are never far away - their music and influence is everywhere.